Community work

Red Poppies and White Butterflies

As part of our 'Red Poppies and White Butterflies' WW1 project, funded by the Hertiage Lottery Fund, we have been holding workshops and events for local schools and community groups. As part of these events visitors have been sharing their own family's WW1 stories and we now have a wonderful growing community archive. School groups have found out what life was like in the trenches and learnt more about what local people did during the Great War, taking home poppies and butterflies to make their own commemorative wall. To find out how you can get involved visit our events page or call 01924 866836.

We've been holding family history days to help visitors to explore their own family's WW1 past. With the help of volunteers and our ancestry stations we've been able to help many people trace a WW1 relative - finding their medal roll cards, military service records and census records. We will be holding more family history days in 2014. See our events list for more details.

Inspired by the story of the Winn family of Nostell Priory, last summer Yew Tree Youth Theatre performed 'Party at the end of the world'. Based on real life characters, this original play told the story of Rowland George Winn's 'coming of age' party. Yew Tree Youth Theatre will be performing at a number of our events in 2014. You can also listen to their actors reading letters sent during WW1 on our website.

Our most recent poetry workshop took 'Red Poppies and White Butterflies' stories as its inspiration. Participants on this free day workshop composed some moving and thoughtful responses to the material. We will be using some of the poems next year as part of our WW1 centenary celebrations. Look out for more WW1 inspired poetry workshops in 2014 by visiting our events page.

Stories from the community

Photograph of the locals gathering at Nostell Priory for Hospital Sunday

Through our workshops, events and activities we are starting to develop a rich WW1 community archive. Follow the links on the right to read these moving stories and discover our growing collection of photographs and memorabilia on our flickr site.